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3 Count: Un-Grooveshark

Jonathan Bailey — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:16:24 +0000

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1: Lawsuit Claims Grooveshark Workers Posted 100,000 Pirated Songs

First off today, Universal Music has filed a second lawsuit against Grooveshark, the music streaming service that has users upload tracks for others to listen to. According to the lawsuit, during their discovery in their first, still ongoing, lawsuit, they claim to have found evidence that points to Universal tracks being uploaded by employees of Escape Media Group, Grooveshark’s parent company. This includes Grooveshark’s CEO, Samuel Tarantino as well as Benjamin Westermann-Clark and Paul Geller, both VPs, who are accused of uploading 1,000s of tracks each. Grooveshark, in the first lawsuit, claimed that it is not liable for infringement due to DMCA safe harbor protections, however, if the tracks were uploaded by their employees, those protections would disappear and open Grooveshark up to massive damages. Universal is seeking an injunction against Grooveshark which, if granted, would likely shut the service down.

2: Publisher Drops Copyright Claim, Favors Fair Use

Next up today, Righthaven, the company that has been suing site owners for allegedly reposting content from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post, has conceded its case against Democratic Underground. The site, which had posted a small excerpt of a news article from the Review-Journal, was sued by Righthaven and initially won on the grounds that Righthaven didn’t hold rights to the content it was suing for. However, Democratic Underground countersued Righthaven claiming that the use was a fair one to start with and now Righthaven has conceded that point, likely paving the way for similar outcomes in other Righthaven lawsuits.

3: Game Developers Sue China’s Baidu Over Copyright

Finally today, in China, the Content Provider Union (CPU) has filed suit against Baidu, the country’s most popular search engine, claiming that it provides unauthorized downloads for some 350 games for mobile devices. The lawsuit is seeking some 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) in damages. Baidu says that they did not upload the games and they comply with the law in China.

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That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: Felony Conviction

Jonathan Bailey — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:57:01 +0000

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1: Copyright Office Joins In: Let’s Make Illegal Streaming a Felony

First off today, as her first day as Register of Copyrights, Maria Pallante is making a splash by testifying before the House Judiciary Committee that illegal streaming needs to be upgraded to a felony, bringing it inline with unlawful reproduction and distribution. Pallante’s testimony, which supports the White House’s IP Czar Victoria Espinel, says that technology has changed and unlawful streaming needs to be treated the same as a distribution of a copyrighted work, not a public performance, holding it to the higher criminal standard. The move comes as the rise of streaming services have, in many circles, replaced traditional piracy techniques for obtaining unlawful music and movies.

2: Filesharing Laws ‘Breach Human Rights’

Next up today, a report being filed with the UN says that “three strikes” laws, such as those passed in the UK and France, are a violation of human rights and need to either be amended or repealed. According to the report, the laws, which disconnect alleged file sharers from the Web after a certain number of notices, are disproportionate in nature. The report contradicts a recent high court ruling in the UK that found the laws to be proportionate and proper.

3: Baidu Appeals Copyright Defeat

Finally today, Chinese search engine Baidu has appealed its recent 500,000 yuan ($77,128) court defeat Shanda Literature, who successfully sued them over their documents project. Baidu documents search, unlike its MP3 search, is hosted on Baidu’s servers. Shanda Literature sued Baidu for documents of theirs that were on the service and won in the lower court, prompting the appeal. The appeal is to start no earlier than June 13.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: Lime Twist

Jonathan Bailey — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:04:53 +0000

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1: LimeWire, Record Industry in Talks to Finally Bury the Hatchet

First off today, LimeWire may be close to striking a deal to settle its lawsuit with the record labels rather than wait for a jury award. The file sharing service was shuttered last fall and both the company and its found have been found liable for copyright infringement. However, a trial began earlier this week on the issue of damages alone, to decide how much LimeWire owed. It seems though that the case may not make it to the jury as the two sides have had at least three settlement talks, indicating that they may be close to an agreement. The trial is scheduled to last several more weeks.

2: China’s Baidu Fined for Copyright Infringement: Report

Next up today, China’s largest search engine, Baidu, has been ordered to pay 550,000 yuan ($84,722) to Qidian.com for letting users download five novels the company has ownership of. This come shortly after the Ministry of Culture in the company said that they are preparing to take action against the search engine for its controversial copyright policies, which include a popular MP3 search feature and a Books feature that made many text works available for download. Baidu has already filed an appeal of the ruling.

3: French Publisher Starts Second Round Against Google

Finally today, a trio of French publishers have sued Google over its Google Book Search project, claiming that the search giant violated French copyright law by scanning thousands of books they own the rights to. The lawsuit comes after another group of publishers filed and won a similar lawsuit at the lower court level, though they only received a fraction of the damages they had requested. The first lawsuit is currently awaiting a verdict on appeal, making the second lawsuit a bit surprising at this time.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: PSN Down

Jonathan Bailey — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:42:32 +0000

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1: Barbie Mugged by the Bratz In $89 Million Jury Verdict

First off today, we have more information about the outcome of the Mattel/MGA lawsuit over Bratz and it seems it is an even more complete defeat for Mattel than previously indicated. Mattel, who sued MGA claiming that they stole the initial concept for the Bratz line when they hired on a former Mattel employee, who they said created the idea while working for them, not only lost their lawsuit over the line, but also lost a counter-lawsuit filed by MGA where the company claimed Mattel had stolen company secrets. Mattel will now have to pay MGA nearly $89 million. The jury, however, did agree that MGA had agreed with Carter Bryant’s Mattel contract, Bryant being the creator of the Bratz line, and awarded Mattel $10,000.

2: China to Punish Baidu for Illegal Music Search Service

Next up today, Xinhua, China’s official news agency, is reporting that the government is planning on taking punitive action against some 14 sites for providing illegal music, including the country’s largest search engine, Baidu. The nature of the punishment hasn’t been disclosed and Baidu, according to previous statements, is preparing to launch a licensed music service in May. Baidu, however, has promised to take quick action against any files identified by the government. There are fears that the punishment could impact Baidu’s notoriously soaring stock price, which has grown over 50 percent in the past year alone.

3: Playstation Network Shut Down To End Piracy Free-For-All

Finally today, the Playstation Network (PSN) has been down for nearly a week though Sony, the company that operates it, has been rather quiet on the cause. The reason may be because of a hacked Playstation 3 firmware which enabled users to access developer functions on the network and begin downloading Sony content for free. According to a staff member at a PS3 modding site, Sony has taken the network offline while they secure against the hack, which could also, potentially, expose credit card and other sensitive data. This information, however, is unconfirmed and even the person making the claims admits he can not be 100% certain.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: Maybe Rogue-ish

Jonathan Bailey — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:46:39 +0000

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1: US Lawmakers Renew Push for “Rogue Websites” Bill

First off today, a bipartisan group from both chambers of Congress have announced that they are renewing their push for legislation to enable the blocking and banning of so-called “rogue” websites that are for the purpose of infringing copyright. COICA, as it was known last year, did not receive a full vote before the Senate, despite sailing unopposed through committees. However, a new version is expected to be introduced shortly in both chambers.

2: Google boots Grooveshark from Android Market

Next up today, Google has booted the Grooveshark app out of the Android Marketplace citing copyright concerns. Grooveshark works by having users upload their music to the service and have others stream the content. Though Grooveshark has struck deals with at least one record label, EMI, others are currently suing the company, including Universal, claiming that the service is infringing. Apple had previously removed the iPhone version of the app out of its App Store in August of last year, forcing iPhone users to jailbreak their phone to use the app if they wanted it.

3: Baidu to Launch Licensed Music Service in May

Finally today, China’s largest search engine, Baidu, has announced that it will be working with record labels to launch a licensed music service. Currently named Baidu Ting, the new service will allow users to stream and download licensed music directly from Baidu. The move comes as authors have ramped up a campaign against Baidu’s digital document service, seeing Baidu make concessions there on the issue of copyright. Baidu has said that it is in talks with the major international record labels to try and work out deals with them for the service, however, those record labels have repeatedly taken Baidu to court over its MP3 search service, which allows users to easily find and download pirated music files.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: Baidu You Too

Jonathan Bailey — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:49:38 +0000

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1: China’s Baidu to Compensate Songwriters for Music Downloads

First off today the Chinese search engine Baidu has announced that it will now start working with Music Copyright Society of China to pay royalties to songwriters for every file downloaded via its MP3 search service. Baidu had been repeatedly slammed for making it easy to find links to pirated music files, including being labeled a “notorious market” in a recent U.S. government report. But while Baidu is now offering payments to songwriters, record labels will not receive any compensation as that, according to Baidu, would require a separate agreement.

2: Film Company Suing Thousands of Pirates Might Have A Big Problem

Next up today, Camelot Entertainment Group, which had been suing over 5,000 alleged files sharers over the largely unknown B movie “Nude Nuns with Big Guns” may have a problem with their litigation. The company, which took a loan out to purchase the rights to the movie along with over 800 other titles, has had that loan foreclosed upon after they failed to make payments. That means Incentive Capital. the firm that loaned Camelot the money, is now the rightful film owner, putting Camelot in the position of suing for a movie they hold no rights in.

3: Northwestern ‘Cage Match’ Canceled Due to Copyright Issue

Finally today, a charity marathon at Northwestern University has been postponed indefinitely due to unspecific copyright issues. Students had been planning to hold a “Cage Match” where they would watch some 16 Nicholas Cage movies back-to-back without breaks to raise money for the charity. The event was to be livestreamed over the Web, with only the students being shown and not the movies. Proceeds from the event were to go to Amnesty International. It is unclear what copyright issues prompted the move.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: D’oh!

Jonathan Bailey — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:55:20 +0000

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1: Copyright Troll Righthaven’s Epic Blunder: A Lawsuit Targeting Ars

First off today, Righthaven filed suit against freelance writer Eriq Gardner over a column he wrote for the site Ars Technica. The article in question was about a previous Righthaven lawsuit, that one against The Drudge Report, in which Ars ran a photo taken from Righthaven’s filings in the case, which happened to depict a grainy version of the Denver Post photo the original lawsuit was over. Righthaven, which represents both the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post, announced they had dropped the suit against Gardner with prejudice after realizing their error, but the blunder called into further question Righthaven’s litigation tactics, which involve suing sites and their owners over using content from various newspapers without first filing any form of warning.

2: In Bow to Authors, Baidu Scrubs Document Sharing Site

Next up today, bowing to pressure from local authors, Chinese search engine Baidu has scrubbed nearly 3 million documents from its document sharing service, Wenku, and has said that it will shut down the service if problems continue. Baidu also said that it is seeking a new round of negotiations with authors and other copyright holders regarding the document service and is hoping to reach a mutually-beneficially agreement. Though Baidu has said it can’t be certainly 100% of the infringing material is gone, it does hope that the mass deletion shows their good faith and will help bring authors to the negotiating table.

3: EMI Wins $950,000 in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit over Beatles Songs

Finally today, the BlueBeat.com case has been settled and EMI can expect to get nearly $1 million from Media Rights Technologies, the former owners of the site. BlueBeat was selling Beatles tracks for 25 cents without a license from EMI, who hold the rights to the songs, and, when pressed in court, claimed that they were not selling the original tracks but instead were offering ones created by ”psycho-acoustic simulation”. The judge, however, disagreed with that and found the company liable for infringement, prompting this settlement.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: Kicked Bucket

Jonathan Bailey — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:01:58 +0000

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1: Photobucket Easily Rebuffs A Copyright Lawsuit

First off today, Photobucket has fended off a pro se lawsuit filed by an artist, Sheila Wolk, who claimed that the company was not doing enough to keep her work off of their site. However, Photobucket, according to the court, qualified for safe harbor protection under the DMCA as it promptly removes works when notified and has completed all other formalities under the law. Wolk had wanted Photobucket to remove works preemptively or filter out infringing content but the judge, in issue the injunction, said that Photobucket had no such obligation.

2: Baidu CEO Seeks Win-Win Business Model in Copyright Dispute

Next up today, Robin Li, the Chariman and CEO of the Chinese search engine Baidu has issued an apology to authors who are upset about infringement on Baidu’s books and documents search tools. Talks between authors and the search engine broke down last week, leading Li to issue his statement, his first on the dispute. He went on to say that he is hoping to find a “win-win” business model that works for both side.

3: Anonymous Launches New DDoS Attack Against RIAA

Finally today, Anonymous has launched another DDOS attack against the RIAA’s site, this time in response to the RIAA’s ongoing case against Limewire, where the organization mentioned damages against the company could reach as high as $75 trillion. The judge denied those high damages, saying that the RIAA could only collect statutory damages once per work, rather than per download as the RIAA had claimed. The RIAA site has been up and down since the DDOS attack began.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: Back Again

Jonathan Bailey — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:57:43 +0000

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1: Mass-Suing of Pirates Gets Shot In Arm Thanks to DC Judge

First off today, a DC judge handed a significant victory to the U.S. Copyright Group, ruling that its mass litigation campaign against suspected file sharers can continue, setting aside objects of procedure, jurisdiction and free speech made by varius ISPs, who are having their records subpoenaed, and groups such as the EFF and Public Citizen. According to the judge, the U.S. Copyright Group, which represents various independent movie studios, can move ahead with its massive lawsuit against suspected file sharers in DC, even though many, if not most, of the potential plaintiffs don’t reside in the jurisdiction. The judge also ruled that file sharing does have elements of speech that may be protectable under the first amendment but that those elements will not likely play a major role in these cases as little original expression was involved.

2: Is Zediva’s New-Release Movie Streaming Service Legal?

Next up today, legal questions are swirling around the new movie streaming service Zediva, which claims to have found a way to legally stream DVDs via the Web. According to the company, it legally purchases DVDs from suppliers and then plays them in physical players, turning the user’s computer into a remote. Each DVD is only streamed to one person at a time, at a cost of $2. However, many are sketpical of Zediva’s claims of legitimacy, citing an earlier case that involved a video rental store renting out booths to watch movies. In that case, the renting was found to be an unlawful public performance.

3: Baidu VS Copyright Fighters Talks Go Fruitless

Finally today, talks between the Chinese search engine Baidu and the Copyright Protestant Alliance, which represents authors in the country upset over Baidu’s book and document service, have ground to a halt. The alliance had proposed a four-point plan for Baidu to make things right in their eyes namely a public apology, a compensation of loss, a stop of copyright violation and a legal operating model it and its partners. Baidu did announce yesterday that it would be using anti-piracy software to filter out infringing works on these services, but did not say if that move was a direct result of these negotiations.

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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

3 Count: P2P Falling

Jonathan Bailey — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:05:53 +0000

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1: Only 9% (and Falling) of US Internet Users are P2P Pirates

First off today, a study released by the research firm NPD Group found that only 9% of Internet users pirate music over P2P networks, down from 16% just three years ago. The study is not a complete picture of the piracy situation as it only covers P2P downloads, not illegal streaming and one-click hosting sites, which have been on the rise, but it does hint that at least certain elements of the piracy problem are on the wane.

2: To The Bitter End: AFACT Takes BitTorrent Piracy Case To The High Court

Next up today, Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) announced that it will be appealing its case against local ISP iiNet to the country’s High Court. AFACT previously had sued iiNet claiming that the ISP authorized copyright infringement on its service by failing to take action when notified of misuse. Two lower courts found that iiNet had not violated the law but the Appeals Court ruled that, if the notices had been more clear and other changes had been made, the verdict could have been different. In light of this, AFACT has decided to appeal the verdict to the High Court where, if it does make it, a verdict may be rendered by the end of this year or early next year.

3: Baidu to Introduce Anti-Piracy Technology for Books Product

Finally today, Baidu, China’s largest search engine, is combating criticism from authors that it enables and tolerates piracy on its book and document search product by introducing anti-piracy technology that will filter out infringing works. Baidu has also often been criticized for enabling illegal downloads of MP3 files via its music search, but Baidu said it is not taking the same approach with that search feature.

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Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.